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Saturday, August 11, 2018

The romance was short lived

Yep - the romance was short lived but I'm NOT going to let it get me down.

The sleeve got sewn onto the magazine quilt and it's winging its merry way to the US. Here's an interesting thought. I need to get a UPS account set up. Then I can do the paperwork online (and save time in the store) and I can save 10% on everything I send. I mentioned this to the owner of this store and he said, "how many packages a month do you send?" I said "one or two". "Oh no - you don't need to do that, it's not worth it" Seriously??? I know I wouldn't be saving tons over the course of the year, but every little bit helps. I learned about the discount at another store. I wonder why he is so reluctant to have me sign up for that account? Now I'm going to do it to spite him!!!! OH dear - I need to relax!

Can you believe how complacent our world has become? When I arrived at the UPS store, I noticed smoke coming from beside the pizza restaurant which is right beside the UPS store. Turns out it was a small fire in a planter right beside the restaurant. Why on earth did they not take a bucket of water out and douse the fire?? Seriously???? I remember several years ago where I hauled buckets of water into the forest to douse a smoldering log. When I left the store, the fire had been doused by someone. Let's hope it was the restaurant, but I think the police and fire trucks had been called. Oh boy!

So yes, I was all fired up to get that quilt on the long arm done. But it was a NO GO right from the get-go. I'll spare you all the gory details (no quilt was damaged in the mess but I had to do a bit of ripping - my OWN fault on that one). I thought I had located the loose connection and it worked the first time, but the second time? Nope - nothing. I just shut it off, sent a message (keeping the service people in the loop) and went outside to sit in the gazebo. Life is way too damn short to worry about a stupid machine. It was glorious and I felt so much better.

But here's the thing - I was reading a sewing magazine - notice SEWING, not quilting. I'm broadening my horizons. It was all about how sewing is healthy for us. Well for our mental health (provided that everything is working just fine!) Not only is sewing healthy for depression - apparently, it takes our minds off the bad stuff (no wonder I'm so positive all the time). Sewing can release dopamine which makes us happy! Not only that, but the social aspect of sewing is HUGE.

So when we laugh at our significant others or friends and say "quilting/sewing is my therapy". We're not kidding. Just imagine what we would do all day if we didn't quilt or sew? Seriously. I get up at 5 AM and I'm in the studio for an hour. EVERYDAY. Well, most days. What would I do for that hour if I didn't sew? And then once my chores are done - what would I do? Seriously? I can't imagine what I would do if I couldn't sew. I could read - but not all day. I could clean - but my house would be so spic n span that it would stifle any creativity. NOPE - I'm happy as a clam and now I just need to get that silly machine working. But I'm away next week so the first thing I do when I'm back is to tackle that thing. Where the heck is the loose connection?

Speaking of the social aspect of quilting, something that has become extremely popular is Quilt Alongs or Sew Alongs. Essentially an organizer (usually a designer) will make a project and then invite their followers to sew along. Blocks/pictures are posted usually in a Facebook group or Instagram. Why are these so insanely popular? Have a read.

So I got to thinking. I book small retreats which are wildly popular and as many as I book, they get filled up with waiting lists. There is one HUGE sewing retreat in the US called SEWTOPIA. Could we do something like this in Canada? I don't see why not. Although I'm wondering about the US event. They used to have ONE a year and it sold out before it even went online (well almost). Now I see there are three coming up and there is space in all three. It's not as exclusive now so less demand. Eighty people at one retreat is a LOT of people. Maybe I'll just keep my retreat small with 8 people per. I could book MORE of them.

I still think the best and cheapest way to share time with my sewing friends is Monday sewing. I would love if it could be two days a week or better yet - a sewing spot where people could drop in for help and just for sewing. Wouldn't that be fun?? There are several places in the area where you can do that. Not sure what the cost is, but if anyone needs some time out - let me know - we have a few spaces in our Monday sewing (and it's only $6 for the day!). Remember - it's BETTER than therapy and you'll have something to show for it. E-mail me (gosh - I think someone e-mailed me and I didn't answer them - if that was you - e-mail me again!).

Now that the long arm isn't working, I've put those quilts off my plate until I return. I've a wee bit of paperwork to do and a bit of sewing to get completed today. And then I should pack. I'm really good with paperwork when I apply myself. But I do need to do a bit of filing. When I'm back.

I'm happy to report that I got word back on my pattern that I had written and they made ONE slight change to the math (those darn angles) and added one sentence about sewing with a ¼" seam (which must have gotten removed from the pattern when I was editing). I'm pretty proud of that. If only ALL patterns could be written with that precision - life would be so much better.

Since I had a bit of downtime last night, I was messing around with the computer. I discovered that I can stream TV on my computer. Now - before we get into a panic here, I was watching the Amazing Race Canada. I always liked that show and I had watched the first episode a while back. I discovered that once I log into my Bell account, I can stream shows on the computer. Ronda just shook her head at my discovery. But here's the problem - I ended up watching two episodes and then was so wired, I couldn't sleep. So TV is bad for me. I'll watch smaller doses in the future.

The other thing I did was some exploring about the capabilities of Photoshop Elements. I need to learn the program. Oh - I know how it works, but I don't know the tricks. I had to print some photos on fabric yesterday and I managed that just fine. It would be fun to do some collages or something. I checked out some online tutorials. Oh boy - that looks like fun.

Speaking of which - there are NO photos today. Nothing that I can share with you.